The present invention is directed to index sheets that are directly printable by machines such as ink jet printers. More specifically, it relates to constructions of index divider sheet assemblies, processes of manufacturing them and methods of using them. It further is concerned with methods of manufacturing tabbed sheets having fold-over binding edges for feeding into copiers and printers for printing operations thereon.
A popular index divider product that is printable by laser printers is the xe2x80x9cDIRECT PRINT Custom Dividers for Laser Printersxe2x80x9d product, which has been available from Avery Dennison Corporation of Pasadena, Calif. since 1998. It has an index tab extending out from a tab edge thereof and an opposite binding edge flap, which is calendered and folded over onto the adjacent calendered portion of the body sheet and held down with a releasable adhesive. By folding the flap over and tacking it down, the effective width of the product is reduced so that it can be fed into today""s printers or copiers.
An adhesive peel-off strip is adhered to the backside of the sheet along the tab edge and behind the tab of the DIRECT PRINT product. Thereby, the strip defines a straight edge perimeter for the product, improving feeding of the product into and/or passing of the product through a printer or copier. The strip is then peeled off of the sheet after the printing operation and disposed of. This product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,566 (""566) (Hunter et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,297 (""297) (Hunter et al.). See also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,454 (Owen) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,710 (Owen). (These four patents and all other patents and other publications mentioned anywhere in this disclosure are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.) Additionally, see PCT Publications WO 98/07582 and 98/41406, both by ACCO USA, Inc.
The DIRECT PRINT product can thereby be fed in a portrait direction into laser printers, and the peel-off strip creates a rectangular sheet article which provides a continuous edge to run through the printer. When it is fed into tabloid-size ink jet printers that are designed to print eleven inch by seventeen inch sheets in a landscape orientation, it is fed binding edge first. This insures proper feeding because if it were fed peel-off strip edge first, the tab edge may catch in the printer.
For some of the tabloid-size laser printers when the product is fed in the landscape direction, peel-off strip last, the peel-off strip helps the printer correctly sense the edge of the sheet. That is, without the strip the edge of the sheet would be sensed about one half inch early, and once the sensor is triggered the printer does not print, and thus will not print on the tab. Examples of these printers are the HP 4V, 5SI and the Mopier printers from HP.
When the DIRECT PRINT product is fed in the portrait direction from feed trays in many ink jet printers, the sheets are not reliably picked up and fed into the printers. This is particularly true for the HP DeskJet 500C, DeskJet 1200C, DeskJet 1600C and Lexmark printers, and also the Canon Bubble Jet printers and Epson Stylus Color printers. These feed trays have corner separation tabs, which have a height of about one-quarter inch; more specifically, they are about three-sixteenths inch wide and one-quarter inch deep. The tabs are provided to separate the top sheet off of the rest of the stack for individual feed into the printer. Unfortunately, the DIRECT PRINT product hangs up at its folded-over flap on these clips or tray corner tabs of ink jet printers.
Directed to remedying the problem of the DIRECT PRINT product feeding from certain feed trays having corner separation tabs, an improved index divider sheet assembly is disclosed herein. The assembly similar to the prior art product has a main body sheet having a tab extending out of a tab edge thereof. A binding edge flap is folded (on a score line) over onto the body of the sheet along a binding edge opposite to the tab edge, and held in the folded-over position with releasable adhesive. A peel-off strip is attached to the body along the tab edge and extending out therefrom to a distance slightly beyond that of the tab. The strip thereby xe2x80x9csquaresxe2x80x9d off the tab edge, so that it is straight with no protrusions. The strip assists the proper functioning and printing of the printer on the divider sheet. The strip is peeled off of the divider sheet by the user after the printing operation.
The binding edge strip according to a preferred embodiment of the invention is reinforced with a reinforcing strip. The binding edge strip is provided for securing the sheet together with other sheets in a book-like arrangement. One way of doing this is to form binder ring holes in the strip; another way is to provide a series of small rectangular holes for a comb binding system; and a third way is to glue (with heat-activated adhesives) the strips to similar strips on similar sheets and to document sheets in a stack in a thermally bound report.
A disadvantage of these strips is that they extend the effective width of the sheet. They extend it about an inch, which makes the sheet too wide to be fed in a portrait direction into most printers and copiers. Accordingly, the strip is folded over onto the body of the sheet and held there with releasable adhesive, as mentioned above. Then after the sheet assembly has been fed into and passed through the printer or copier, the flap is unfolded to a flat orientation with the divider sheet.
Pursuant to the present invention, the flap has notches cut out (either die cut or hole punched) of opposing end corners with a thin xe2x80x9clegxe2x80x9d formed at the corners and along the flap fold line. The legs are narrower than the width of the body portion of the flap. These thin legs, which fit under the corner clips in the printer/copier feed trays, allow the assemblies to be individually picked up and fed off of a stack of same in the feed trays into the printer/copier. Thus, another definition of the invention is a laser printer feed tray with the corner clips and one or a stack of these assemblies (with the fold-over flap which has the thin legs) in the tray. The present assembly can be fed in a portrait direction into an ink jet printer. It can also be fed in a landscape direction into that printer. However, it would be fed binding edge first and the legs may help reduce stiffness of the corners. The legs may also help the divider assembly feed out of a laser printer cassette tray.
The depth of the notch may be any depth greater than {fraction (3/16)} inch, and preferably is xe2x85x9c inch. The width should be such that a thin area ({fraction (1/16)} inch nominal) is left to the outside of the score line. This extra material allows for the accurate folding of the sheet in the fold-and-glue machine discussed below. Although there should be a two-ply area along the edge, the thinner it is the better. The two-ply area should be substantially narrower than the width of the corner separation tabs (less than {fraction (3/16)} inch) to facilitate feeding of the assembly into a printer or copier. The notch cut and leg form a single thick area that reduces the overall stiffness at the corner. The double-thick area along the edge provides a smooth edge to slide over the corner tabs. If the product were notched to the edge, the interface between the single and double thickness would likely tend to catch in the printer. Furthermore, the extra material allows for easier folding of the binding edge.
The assembly can be manufactured using a nine-and-a-quarter inch wide roll of paper coated with an ink jet receptive coating, with a hydrophobic backside coating for moisture stability and to enable release of the adhesive strip. Also, the roll of paper can be uncoated on the back side to facilitate release of the adhesives. (The release coating is used if the paper is not properly moisture balanced and therefore curls.)
The paper is processed by several in-line steps. One step is that it is calendered to reduce its thickness in the binding area by up to twenty percent. The calendered area is scored vertically down the middle thereof. The paper is turned over and a reinforcing strip of polyester is applied to the flap area. The paper is slit to a nine inch width, the holes are punched, the paper is notch-punched and the paper is sheeted to eleven inches. The polyester strip may be spaced about {fraction (1/32)} inch from the score (fold) line. Thus, the polyester strip longitudinally coats about half of the thin legs.
The sheets are then processed through a tab cutting machine where a patch of ink jet receptive coated MYLAR is applied to the tab side and the tab shape is cut out. The tabbed sheets are then processed through a fold-and-glue machine that applies the peel-off strip to the back side of the sheet, applies a fugitive adhesive to the hole-punched binding edge, folds the binding edge over and laminates the fold together. More particularly, the fold-and-glue machine performs the following manufacturing steps: a first aligner straightens the sheet; the peel-off strip is applied; Swift adhesive is Gravure printed onto the sheet; the flap is held by feeding into a narrowing V-shaped channel; and the binding edge is held in place with pressure rollers while the adhesive dries.
Alternative manufacturing processes of the invention include conducting the notching step xe2x80x9coff linexe2x80x9d in a discrete operation after the reinforcing and hole punching steps. Instead of punching and slitting the notch, it can be die cut. Slitting to size is optional and can be done after the notching step, if desired. Many of the steps in the two paragraphs above can be rearranged, as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Additionally, the tab need not be MYLAR-reinforced.
Thus, the notch cut can be formed in-line with punch/die sets on a (SUPERWEB) converting press. Alternatively, it can be formed by a discrete sheet-fed die-cut operation. A further alternative is to form it in a continuous web die cutting and matrix removal system.
Preferred dimensions for the overall sheet when unfolded are nine by eleven inches, with a one-half inch tall tab area. The folded product with the peel-off strip preferably measure 8.5 by eleven inches. The scored and folded area is xc2xe inch wide with a 1.5 inch wide calendered area. Although the peel-off strip is 1-{fraction (7/16)} inch wide, it can vary as the total width dimension is 8.5 inches.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those persons having ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains from the foregoing description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.